


a boy is a thing with fangs

by unthank



Series: the endless sky [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: 10 year old miya atsumu and sakusa kiyoomi, Alternate Universe, Edo Period, Kitsune, M/M, kiyoomi becomes enamoured with a fox spirit named atsumu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25654345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unthank/pseuds/unthank
Summary: At age ten Kiyoomi is moved from his comfortable home in Edo to a cold house in a forest, located just far away enough. His obaasan's folktales haunt his sleep and when he hears a bell chime in the woods, Kiyoomi is certain a malicious youkai is out there.What Kiyoomi doesn't expect is to find Atsumu; a fox spirit, made for the gods, who laughs like a human boy.
Relationships: Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi
Series: the endless sky [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974106
Comments: 10
Kudos: 340





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for my boyfriend as a gift for our four year anniversary

It was winter and Kiyoomi was cold.

They hadn’t moved far from Edo, not in reality, but he was utterly convinced that the weather was colder here than back home. He still didn’t understand _why_ his father had made them move here. The house was bigger, but it was colder, and the trees outside whistled in the wind, eerie and uninviting compared to the busy streets of the city.

It was cold and lonely here.

That wasn’t entirely true, Kiyoomi knew, but he hated this all the same. It wasn’t that he liked crowds or when his father had guests to stay; he always hid from people when they visited, curling up on his futon or in his mother’s room. He hated how visitors always tried to touch him, tried to pet his curls or feed him candies from artisans he didn’t know. Kiyoomi was for Kiyoomi, and maybe for his mother or his cousin on a good day.

But those days were rare, and he wanted to be for himself.

✦

He found it hard to sleep in this new house. The winter winds whipped and wailed through the wood and paper doors and the forest outside cast monstrous shadows on his walls. He wasn’t usually afraid of ghosts, but Kiyoomi was certain that youkai inhabited the surrounding forest. It was a good thing that Motoya and his mother lived with them. Without his cousin’s calming presence in their shared room, Kiyoomi knew he’d succumb to the fears his _obaasan_ instilled in him, her old stories of the dead haunting his dreams. Some nights he couldn’t sleep at all.

It was one of those nights, currently, and he lay on his futon. Motoya’s soft snores and the winds outside were the only sounds he could hear.

For all his ten years of age, Kiyoomi had never felt more tired and more frustrated.

 _Why_ did his father make their family move? _Why_ did they have to live in a forest now? And _why_ was the house they now lived in so old and so cold and so -

A different sound, one he hadn’t heard here before, cut his thoughts off before he could spiral any further. It sounded like a bell, or possibly a wind chime. Whatever it was, it was getting closer to the house, and Kiyoomi was half frozen with fear and curiosity.

He crawled out from under his blanket, the cold air hitting his legs and he considered staying in bed. But the chime sounded again and he knew he couldn’t let this go without seeing what was outside - even if it was youkai. So he slid open his door, slipping down the corridors until he found his sandals.

It was even colder outside than it was indoors, which Kiyoomi should have realised, but he was far too focused on the task in front of him. His sandals barely protected his feet and he cringed at feeling the cold earth through the straw, but he pushed on, determined to find the source of the mysterious jingling chime.

Surprisingly, the trees seemed to grow quieter, the leaves hushed and the whistling ended. The silence and darkness enveloped Kiyoomi and for a moment, he wished that he’d woken Motoya up to come with him. He couldn’t see and every branch, every leaf that brushed his arms sent shivers straight up his spine. He didn’t know how dirty he was getting, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He’d think about that later, when he was back home in the safety of his futon and everything he heard outside had been assessed.

What Kiyoomi didn’t expect was to trip. He didn’t fall over a branch or a rock, instead he felt a warm body, all small and soft fur, dash against his bare shins. Whatever it was, it was fast, and Kiyoomi fell face first in the cold winter dirt of the forest.

He sat up, irritated. He’d have to wake his mother up and ask for a bath when he got back home, which would lead to her asking where he’d been and why, which in turn would lead to him being scolded for running around the forest on his own at night.

But there it was again - the jingle and chime was right in front of him and Kiyoomi found himself staring into a pair of bright golden eyes.

Crouched before him was a boy, the owner of those eyes whose pupils were slit in a way that made Kiyoomi think of the cats in Edo or the foxes his _obaasan_ told him about. The boy was entirely dressed in black, from his pitch dark hair to his threadbare kimono. His feet were bare and his fingernails untrimmed; he seemed wild, entirely untamed and Kiyoomi wasn’t sure if he should stay in place or run all the way back to his home.

“Are ya alright?” The boy suddenly spoke.

Kiyoomi was startled. For moment, he’d assumed that this feral boy couldn’t speak, or if he did, it wouldn’t have any semblance to Japanese. Though it was different and not entirely like the language his mother bestowed upon him, he felt reassured that he could at least communicate with the stranger in front of him.

“Yes,” Kiyoomi replied.

“Sorry for startlin’ ya,” the boy laughed, showing sharp teeth. “There ain’t many of us around here I think. That’s what Kita-san said.”

He reached his hand out and Kiyoomi took it, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. It was only then that he realised the boy wasn’t entirely boy, and that from within his thick darkness ofhis hair sat two, pointed ears.

The boy must’ve noticed Kiyoomi’s staring and he reached up to touch his ears, “These? It’s cuz I’m a fox.”

“A fox?” Kiyoomi asked.

“There’s more of us back home, but we moved here.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Wait,” the boy suddenly exclaimed. “You ain’t seen one of us before?!”

As well as being wild, this boy didn’t seem to be very smart, Kiyoomi thought to himself. It was obvious that he hadn’t seen someone like this boy before, he doubted that anyone ever had.

“What _are_ you?” Kiyoomi asked, this time with more force.

The boy grinned again, little fangs peaking over his bottom lip.

“I’m a fox, we’re Inari Okāmi’s messengers, accordin’ to Kita-san.”

“Kita-san?”

“He looks after us, he’s got, like, _four_ tails.”

“Oh, I see.”

Kiyoomi didn’t really know what to do. The boy seemed not much different to a human boy, and if he belonged to one of the gods, then it could be dangerous to upset him. He tried to remember his _obaasan’s_ stories; he was sure she told him about Inari before, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t remember if she told him about boys who were foxes.

“Hey,” the boy’s voice broke the silence. “What’re ya thinkin’ about?”

“None of your business,” Kiyoomi said, mildly irritated at the impudence.

The boy just laughed again, “Yer a funny one. My name is Atsumu.”

“Oh,” Kiyoomi replied. “I’m Kiyoomi.”

The boy - Atsumu - smiled at him, his bright teeth shining in the blackness of the forest around them. There was something carefree about him and just momentarily, Kiyoomi was jealous that he could run and laugh with so much ease.

“I gotta go find Kita-san,” Atsumu grinned once again, he seemed to be made of laughter and smiles. “I’ll see ya around, Kiyoomi!”

✦

It’d been days since Kiyoomi had met the fox-eared boy in the woods.

A little bit of him wondered if it’d been a dream, that his granny’s stories had got into his head and the thought of youkai haunted him in his sleep. But the stains on his yukata and the frustrated scolding he’d received from his mother reminded him that it had really happened - he had met a boy who belonged to an entirely different world.

He sat with Motoya under a yogi. They’d taken it from their mothers’ room, carefully pulled it from the cupboard and brought it to the room they were now in. Motoya had wanted to go outside, desperate to explore the nature that surrounded their new home, but snow had gathered overnight and they had to remain satisfied with watching it fall. Though Kiyoomi wouldn’t admit it, he had wanted to go outside as well. Not to play, but to try find the mysterious boy again.

“Motoya,” he said.

“Hmm?” His cousin hummed, knowing well enough that Kiyoomi would say whatever he wanted to say regardless of whether he answered.

“When I was outside the other night, I met a weird boy.”

“Did you see your reflection in a puddle?”

Kiyoomi scowled, “No. He said he worked for the gods.”

“Maybe his father was a kannushi or something?” Motoya offered.

 _That_ was _possible_ , Kiyoomi thought. But why would the son of a human intermediary have the fangs and ears of a predator.

“I don’t know.”

He cuddled further into the yogi, pulling the thick fabric under his chin as he stared out the open door. The snow was heavy still and lay in a thick layer over the ground. His mother and aunt would soon come complain about the door being open, worried that snow or sickness would flood the house and render their sons unwell. Usually, Kiyoomi would agree, he hated being ill. For once, though, his mind was elsewhere, and he wanted to know more about the new place he found himself living in. Specifically, he wanted to know more about Atsumu and the reason why someone so usual was living in the forest without his family.

“Kiyoomi,” Motoya’s sharp whisper and hand on his shoulder shook him out of his thoughts. “Kiyoomi look, it’s a fox.”

It was a fox, his cousin was right, and as Kiyoomi looked, he was sure he saw more than one and the flash of black fabric against snow.

“Come on,” he said, standing up.

He grabbed his cousin’s wrist and dashed out the door, sandals and socked feet getting soaked under the crunch of snow. He followed the small paw prints in the snow and looked ahead to catch sight of bobbing orange fur. In the middle of a small clearing, he stopped. The trees here were tall and an old shrine gate stood, imposing and decaying, between the two largest trees.

That chime sounded once again and he twirled around, dragging Motoya with him. The fox boy was here, he was sure of it, and there was so much he wanted to ask him.

“Kiyoomi!”

He spun again to face the gate, Motoya barely managing to stay upright.

In front of the gate stood Atsumu, a grey hakama now tied over his rough spun kimono. Kiyoomi noticed then, in the light of day, that he didn’t just have the ears of a fox - a soft, bottlebrush of a tail stuck out from behind Atsumu, swaying gently in excitement. He wasn’t alone this time, however. Beside him stood two other boys, both with the same ears and fuzzy tails, though they appeared to be less than excited to see Kiyoomi and Motoya.

One of the boys was identical to Atsumu, his twin, Kiyoomi guessed, a frown furrowed his brow as he stared at them. The other boy was more expressionless, his eyes gave little away and his hair fell over his forehead in soft, pointed curtains.

Kiyoomi realised then that they all had the same golden eyes, and he could only guess that they all possessed the same sharp teeth.

“‘Tsumu, who’s this?” The identical boy asked,

“Oh, that’s Omi. We made friends the other night when y’all took so long to get here,” Atsumu said, his hands clasped behind his back.

The other boy hit Atsumu over the head with his fist, “That’s cuz ya ran ahead, stupid. I thought ya hadn’t gotten into trouble but ya did. Makin’ friends with _humans_ …”

Atsumu huffed and reached to grab his twin’s hair.

“My name is Kiyoomi,” Kiyoomi whispered. To himself or everyone else, he wasn’t sure.

Atsumu turned, a fistful of his twin’s hair in his hand, and grinned at him, “Omi-Omi.”

So he was annoying as well, Kiyoomi pouted, he seemed far too much like a real, human boy to be something that belonged to the divine.

He and Motoya watch the two boys fight, tussling on the ground and suddenly Kiyoomi understood why his kimono looked so worn. His mother, if he had one, must be so frustrated. He knew that if he and Motoya got into fights, if he dared to rip and dirty his own kimono, that his mother would break her usual calm and reprimand him repeatedly. Even Motoya’s mother, for all her smiles and well wishes, would chide them both for behaving so out of line.

“Never mind them.”

The third boy spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Are they always like this?” Motoya asked.

“Yes,” the boy sighed. “Atsumu might be loud but Osamu looks to pick fights. I’m Rintarou, by the way.”

“I’m Motoya.”

They lapsed into silence again, leaving Kiyoomi to wonder why they seemed so normal, so _human_. None of his _obaasan’s_ stories had prepared him to meet a fox spirit, much less interact with ones who acted like they were same as he was.

“What’re you all doing here?” He blurted out.

The twins stopped fighting then, and Atsumu looked at him with a strange curiosity.

“We had to leave home,” he said. “Kita-san is takin’ us to a new shrine around these parts. We still gotta travel there.”

“Oh,” Kiyoomi blinked. “You’re not staying?”

Atsumu grinned, sly and mischievous, “Yer gonna miss me, Omi-Omi? Don’tcha worry, I ain’t gonna be far.”

Kiyoomi felt himself flush. This boy was made of trouble, he’d shared the same existence as him for a few days and already he was out of his usual routine and everyday behaviour. Perhaps, it’d be good to be rid of someone so disruptive. He could go back to his life with his mother and Motoya and miss the city he used to call home. He could grow up to be the man he knew his father wanted him to be.

But he wanted to know more about these foxes who claimed to be spirits and messengers of a god. He wanted to know why they were here and what they did, who ‘Kita-san’ was and if he really did have four tails.

“That’s… No…” he started to stutter, unable to think of what he really wanted to say.

“Hey,” Atsumu stood in front of him, closer than he had that other night and Kiyoomi was face to face with his sharp fangs. “We ain’t gonna be in yer forest forever, so let’s play together?”

“Okay,” Kiyoomi breathed.

And so they played together, the forest becoming a house for their imaginations instead of a den where fearful myths laid to rest.

✦

Though a decade had past since their childhood mystery, Kiyoomi and Motoya still lived in the same forest house, bearing each and every cold winter that came their way.

He hadn’t forgotten what happened. If anything, though he know it couldn’t be true, it felt as if his memory of Atsumu grew stronger with every passing day. He suffered through with both nostalgia and irritation; his memory of Atsumu was both fond and laced with annoyance, and he wasn’t sure if he could stand being referred to by a nickname at his adult age of twenty.

Motoya called him stiff when he explained it to him, chuckling and asking him who tied his obi too tight. Kiyoomi thought it was perfectly reasonable. After all, he wasn’t a child enamoured with the fantasy of fox spirits anymore.

Today was a different day, however, and he was thinking of Atsumu more than usual.

For the first time in the near eleven years they’d spent here, Kiyoomi’s mother had decided to travel to the nearest town and visit the shrine located there. This shrine, as far as he was aware, was dedicated to Inari. Something in the back of his head whispered - hoped - that this was the shrine Atsumu had said he was travelling to, and that after all these years he’d still be there.

It was a slim hope, but it was still a hope.

Luckily for their small entourage, not many people were at the shrine. Kiyoomi was glad for that, all those years in seclusion living with only his cousin and their mothers, with the occasional house servant to help them, had left him with little patience for crowds of people. Some part of him was glad they had left Edo. It amused him, that did, his ten year old self would never have thought he’d be glad to leave the capital.

He climbed up the steps, the red gate that passed above him reminding him of the ramshackle gate that still lingered in the forest back home.

There was a bubble of nerves in his stomach, anticipation and fear of disappointment almost weighed him down. He hoped that Atsumu would be there. He didn’t want to be disappointed if he wasn’t. He didn’t want to hate the man he could have grown up into. If fox spirits even aged the way that humans did.

A chime caught his ear and something tugged in his chest. It was the same noise, the tingling charm that had drawn him out of his bed so many years ago.

Kiyoomi turned, his heart in his throat as he hoped - he dared not to hope - that the right person was standing near him.

Leaning against the gate was a man, tall and broad, dressed in a clean black kimono and grey hakama, a bell tied to his waist. Though his eyes were brown instead of gold and no pointed ears stuck up from his black hair, the grin that curled his mouth told Kiyoomi everything he needed to know.

“It’s been a long time,” Atsumu said, his voice now low and husky. “I’ve been waitin’ for ya.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> twin brothers, side by side

Being ten years old meant, of course, that Atsumu was old enough to be brave. That’s what Kita had told him last night - that’s what his mother had said just before she kissed his forehead, packing him and Osamu off to travel to somewhere far off away from home. He still didn’t understand why.

“Hey, ‘Samu,” he said, rolling onto his twin’s futon.

“Yeah, ‘Tsumu?” Osamu replied.

“We ain’t goin’ home, are we?”

Osamu rolled over, his soft tail brushing over both of their legs. He frowned a little, twisting loose threads from his yukata into frayed knots, and Atsumu knew his twin felt as anxious as he did.

“I think,” Osamu said slowly, quietly. “I think we might see Mama again, one day. We gotta.”

“Yeah, we gotta,” whispered Atsumu.

The room they were in was cold and bare, nothing like the room they shared at their mother’s shrine. The paper walls were yellowed with age and Atsumu knew any small tussle with his brother would bring them tumbling down along with Kita’s quiet disappointment. He shuddered at that thought. He didn’t want Kita to be disappointed in him, much less be angry at the both of them for ruining the house at the new shrine they lived in.

He curled up into Osamu, relieved in that moment that he had half of himself with him. No matter what, he knew, he’d always have his twin by his side. He wouldn’t want it to be any other way. He’d be bone-achingly lonely if it was just him and Rintarou who were sent to live with Kita in this cold, far off place. He’d be jealous if their mother chose to keep just one of them.

But she wouldn’t do that, he also knew, all the wisdom of a ten year old settled in his bones. He and Osamu were half and half - they belonged in the same space.

Even if, right now, he wanted to wake him just to tease him about the cub-crush he had on Rintarou.

“Tsumu…” Osamu mumbled, barely louder than the silence in their room.

“Yeah?”

“Yer ears are twitchin’. It’s annoyin’.”

“ _ Yer _ annoyin’.”

Atsumu felt his brother’s hand in his hair and a sharp zip of pain shot through his scalp. He yelped and sat up, rubbing the sore spot on his head and pouting.

“‘Samu, that was yer claws!” He whined.

His brother snuggled deeper under the  _ yogi _ and smiled smugly up at him.

“Sure was.”

Atsumu huffed then, jumped on top of his brother and wrestled his way under the cover, clinging to his brother’s warmth. His hands were cold after being exposed to the cool bedroom air and he pressed them against Osamu’s neck. His twin squealed and elbowed him, sharp bones jutting into his already solid ribcage. He laughed then, feeling, ever so suddenly, that he was in the warmth of home instead of a land he couldn’t understand.

It was okay, he thought, drifting into a peaceful sleep. His head was tucked next to Osamu’s and he held onto his hand, a safety net and anchor in this new unfathomable world. With his twin by his side, Atsumu knew, they both knew, that they could face the new life fate and circumstance had placed in front of them. They could be the very best fox spirits the gods were challenging them to be.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. kiyoomi's forest home is located in kozuke province, which is in modern day gunma prefecture  
> 2\. a lot of facts are kept vague because the characters are children  
> 3\. there'll be a sequel with them as adults eventually
> 
> thank you for reading!
> 
> twitter @[kuguken](https://twitter.com/kuguken)


End file.
